Charles Chase Merritt, seen here in a San Bernardino courtroom in 2015, is scheduled to go to trial July 30 in the killing of the McStay family from Fallbrook. (File photo by John Valenzuela/The Sun)

Jury selection began Monday in the death-penalty case of Charles “Chase” Merritt, charged with the 2010 bludgeoning deaths of four members of a Fallbrook family whose remains were found, along with a three-pound sledgehammer, in two shallow graves in the Mojave Desert.

The process is expected to last through the middle of December, with opening statements set for Jan. 7, 2019, defense attorney Rajan Maline said in a telephone interview.

Merritt, 61, of Homeland in Riverside County, has pleaded not guilty to the charges that he killed former business associate Joseph McStay, 40, his wife, Summer, 43, and their two children, Gianni, 4, and Joseph Jr., 3, in their San Diego County home on Feb. 4, 2010, then buried their bodies more than 100 miles away — in two shallow graves in the Mojave Desert, north of Victorville and west of the 15 Freeway.

Joseph McStay, 40, his wife Summer, 43, and their two sons, Gianni, 3, and Joseph, 3, were discovered dead in shallow graves just north of Victorville on Nov. 11, 2013. (Courtesy Photo)

Sheriff’s investigators believe Summer McStay was raped before she was killed, defense attorneys have said.

Prosecutors and sheriff’s investigators say Merritt, who crafted custom water fountains for Joseph McStay’s online business Earth Inspired Products, was heavily in debt and had a gambling problem. He killed the McStay family for financial gain, they said.

A key part of the evidence is investigators’ claims that Merritt began writing multiple checks to himself from McStay’s QuickBooks business account, and cashing them, beginning on Feb. 5, 2010, the day after the McStay family was last seen alive, according to testimony at Merritt’s preliminary hearing.

The checks cashed to the newly created vendor name “charlesmerritt” between Feb. 5 and Feb. 8, 2010 amounted to $21,858, investigators said.

Defense attorneys have challenged those claims and filed a motion to strike the QuickBooks material, saying Joseph McStay’s business and accounting records are hearsay and inadmissible.

Only Joseph McStay can validate the accuracy and authenticity of the QuickBooks account, co-defense counsel James McGee said.The same applies to prosecution claims that Merritt was indebted to McStay for $30,000, he has argued.

San Bernardino County Superior Court Judge Michael A. Smith, who is hearing the case, said in May he would rule on the defense motions closer to the trial date.

The trial is projected to last into April, and the first panel of 80 prospective jurors Monday quickly dropped to about 60 after hardship claims, Maline said.

Those remaining filled questionnaires, and that process will continue this week and next for additional new panels.

Questioning of prospective jurors, called voir dire, starts for two weeks beginning Dec. 3. The case will then break for the holidays before the scheduled early January opening statements.

A journalist since 1975 for City News Service in Los Angeles, The Associated Press in Los Angeles and New York, and The Press-Enterprise, Richard K. De Atley has been Entertainment Editor and a features writer. He has also reported on trials and breaking news. He is currently a business reporter for The P-E. De Atley is a Cal State Long Beach graduate, a lifelong Southern Californian (except for that time in New York -- which was great!) and has been in Riverside since 1992.